Thinking about Emily Carr

I've been thinking about Emily Carr lately- for a number of reasons. There are a couple of new books out about Emily - one is for children ages 5 and up called "When Emily Carr met Woo"  by Monica Kulling with illustrations by Dean Griffins. I haven't seen the actual book but the picture in the advertising folder looks like fun. The choice of a monkey for a pet was an unusual one - but then she had a rat pet too- and she certainly was a person who marched to her own drum.  Another new book is "Emily Carr in England " by Kathryn Bridge who "takes a fresh look at the years that Emily Carr spent in England from 1899 to 1904,learning to become an artist" There are humorous illustrations and verses  as well as sketches by Emily herself and photographs. I'll be looking to see this as some of the time spent in England was far from humorous since she had a breakdown and ended up in a sanatorium. I read a novel based on Emily Carr's life - the love for art was captured but the book lost me when a sort-of love interest was added. There was no way that a person of her upbringing and outlook would have been visiting a bit of a vagabond on a boat in Coal Harbour!  I have her own books - Hundreds and Thousands- the Journals of an Artist and Growing Pains: An Autobiogaphy and I've been re-reading them. I had forgotten the bit where  a young Delisle Parker, newly returned from Paris, visited her studio. Later in his life, he was an art critic for a Vancouver newspaper and also taught at Saturday morning classes at the Vancouver Art Gallery. One year, he was my teacher and I remember him as a very dapper man who did not want to get chalk from children's art work on his clothes. We would gather around him as he would point, with his polished shoe, at art work spread on the floor. By that time, paintings by Emily Carr were on the Art Gallery walls.  Her own books really show her dedication to her art. It is really interesting to see the renewed interest in her and the attention  gained by the exhibition of her work at Dulwich Gallery in London.

More about Emily

Interesting that when a person is noticing some particular thing, that that "thing" then starts cropping up all over! I've barely finished with the fictionalized account of Emily Carr's life when it seemed like she was mentioned in many places. Now the Globe and Mail had an article about two photos that have been in separate archives and are now together. Photos of a tennis party, one has a young man gazing at Emily instead of at the photographer, while one taken minutes apart has him, seated, leaning against her leg - which as the article states would have been very unusual behaviour for the time. and then there is a recently published story by Carr called "Stone and Heart" in which she recounts a tennis party and a young man lifting her down from a ladder and kissing her. She went on to say "Soon I found the young man was only flirting with me, but too late, my heart was lost. It took 15 years to pull myself out." Interesting indeed, as I found that a far more realistic "romance",considering the times and her upbringing, than the one in "Forest Lover".There is going to be a new Exhibit about Emily Carr at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, curated by Kathryn Bridge. She is hoping to find out who the man in the photos is before "The Other Emily:Redefining Emily Carr" opens in March. -How times have changed! ---- This photo is the figure I did in the last Sculpture session. The nice contrast with the black against the fired white of the sculpture, was provided by a strategically seated cat!

Reading about Art

In a recent newsletter, Robert Genn commented that he was reading Steve Martin's novel "An Object of Beauty" about dealings in the art world of upscale collectors. Then he added that he- and most artists- don't usually read fiction. The clickbacks now show that lots of artists *do* read fiction and many read about art. I've got 238 pages into "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follet and I'm really enjoying it. I might even end up more knowledgeable about the whole 20th century. Certainly I already know more about coal mining than I did before. However, before that, I finished "The Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland. I've enjoyed all of Vreeland's books - my favourite is probably "Life Studies", her book of short stories and my favourite novel is"Luncheon of the Boating Party" because it gives such a complete picture of the creation of this painting. However, I had put off reading about Emily Carr as I wasn't sure how I would react to a fictionalized account. I'd read Emily Carr's journals, heard about her and been in children's art classes in the old Vancouver Art Gallery where we were on the floor under paintings by Emily Carr, Lawren Harris and others. She influenced how I saw the West Coast. But, Susan Vreeland did capture her character very well and the descriptions of her trips to First Nation's lands were very well done as was the inner struggle with expressing herself. I could understand the need to invent a character like Claude for the sake of the story - but I really think, given the conventions and morals of the times, that any relationship between a "Claude" and Emily would never have happened. Still, it was worth reading and thinking about the contribution that Emily Carr made towards recognition for female artists. Now I'm looking forward to Vreeland's new novel coming out this January. ....painting here is "The White Gown" which is Iva in a wedding dress - and has nothing to do with reading.